Public Lectures at PrincetonPublic Lectures at Princeton University2015-02-25T15:51:34Zhttp://lectures.princeton.edu/feed/atom/WordPressmh13http://lectures.princeton.edu/?p=17862015-02-25T15:51:34Z2014-12-31T15:23:45Z0mh13http://lectures.princeton.edu/?p=17822014-12-10T00:35:10Z2014-12-09T23:35:32Z0mh13http://lectures.princeton.edu/?p=17582015-01-15T19:33:36Z2014-08-06T19:06:24Z

Far From The Tree

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

McCosh 50; 6:00 pm

Andrew Solomon is a writer of remarkable talent and intellect. His lectures explore the subjects of politics, culture and psychology with extraordinary humanity. His latest work, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children & the Search for Identity, is an examination of the means by which families accommodate children with physical, mental and social disabilities and how these unusual situations can be invested with love.

Andrew is an outspoken activist and philanthropist for many causes in LGBT rights, mental health, education and the arts. He is the founder of the Solomon Research Fellowships in LGBT Studies at Yale University and is a Professor of Clinical Psychology at Columbia University.

The Stafford Little Lecture Series and the Belknap Visitors in the Council of the Humanities are cosponsoring this event, which is free and open to the public. For more information on this event, please visit lectures.princeton.edu.

Writing on the Writing Process: A Reading

John McPhee, author and pioneer of creative non-fiction, will read from several personal history pieces, all relating to the writing process and to Princeton.

John McPhee was born in Princeton, New Jersey, and was educated at Princeton University and Cambridge University. His writing career began at Time magazine and led to his long association with The New Yorker, where he has been a staff writer since 1965. Also in 1965, he published his first book, A Sense of Where You Are, with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and in the years since, he has written nearly 30 books, including Oranges (1967), Coming into the Country (1977), The Control of Nature (1989), The Founding Fish (2002), Uncommon Carriers (2007), and Silk Parachute (2011). Encounters with the Archdruid (1972) and The Curve of Binding Energy (1974) were nominated for National Book Awards in the category of science. McPhee received the Award in Literature from the Academy of Arts and Letters in 1977. In 1999, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Annals of the Former World. He has taught writing at Princeton since 1974.

This event, sponsored by the Spencer Trask Lecture Series, is free and open to the public. For more information on this and other Public Lecture events, please visit lectures.princeton.edu.

The New Era of Human 2.0:

New Minds, New Bodies, New Identities

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

McCosh 50, 6:00 pm

Society is at the threshold of a new age when machines will no longer be separate, lifeless mechanisms, but will instead be intimate extensions of the human body. Such a merging of body and machine will not only improve the quality of life for disabled people, but will allow persons with normal physiologies to experience augmented capabilities – cognitively, emotionally and physically. Professor Hugh Herr of the MIT Media Lab describes “Human 2.0” – an era where technology will merge with our bodies and our minds to forever change our concept of human capability. Hugh features research work that is blurring the distinction between “able bodied” and “disabled,” demonstrating technologies at the neural-digital interface. These new research initiatives are capable of addressing a plethora of conditions currently at clinical impasses, from social-emotional prostheses for persons with autism, to the development of smart prostheses that can emulate – and even exceed the capabilities of – biological limbs. Hugh believes that through an ever-increasing technological sophistication, human disability will largely be eliminated in this 21rst century, setting the stage for innovations that will ultimately benefit all humanity.

Hugh Herr, a double amputee himself, is responsible for breakthrough advances in bionic limbs that provide greater mobility and new hope to those with physical disabilities. Hugh’s story has been told in the biography Second Ascent, the Story of Hugh Herr (1991); a 2002 National Geographic film Ascent: the Story of Hugh Herr; and episodes and articles featured in CNN, The Economist, Discover, Nature and NPR. He is the Director of MIT Media Lab’s Biomechatronics Group.

This event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Louis Clark Vanuxem Lecture Series. For more information on this and other Public Lecture events, please visit lectures.princeton.edu.

Learning From Europe

Monday, October 6, 2014

6:00 pm, McCosh 50

Walter E. Edge Lecture Series

Six years ago, the collapse of Lehman Brothers ushered in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Facing similar problems, the United States and Europe chose differing responses, with Europe emphasizing austerity. What can we learn from Europe’s experience?

Paul Krugman is a Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is the author or editor of dozens of books and several hundred articles, primarily about international trade and international finance. Krugman is also nationally known for his regular columns in The New York Times. He served on the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers from 1982 – 1983. He was the recipient of the 1991 John Bates Clark Medal, an award given every two years by the American Economic Association to an economist under 40. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2008.

This event, sponsored by the Edge Lecture Series, is free and open to the public. Seating in McCosh 50 will be on a first come, first served basis. For more information on this and other events in the series, please visit lectures.princeton.edu.

Culture and Politics in 21st Century France: The French Cultural Exception”

Monday, April 7, 2014

6:00 pm, McCosh 50

Frédéric Mitterrand will discuss Culture and Politics in 21st Century France. Ruben Gallo, Director of Princeton University’s Program in Latin American Studies, will lead the discussion, which will focus on Mitterrand’s tenure as Minister of Culture under former president Sarkozy. Mitterand will discuss the role of French culture in the twenty-first century, and he will also discuss his recent book, “La Récreation,” an account of his years in politics.

Frederic Mitterrand is a former French Minister of Culture and Communication under President Sarkozy. An actor, screenwriter, television presenter, producer, and director, Mitterrand is also the author of numerous books, including the autobiographical novel “The Bad Life” (La Mauvaise Vie, 2005).

The Edge Lecture Series will sponsor this event, which is free and open to the public. For further information on this and other events in the series, please visit lectures.princeton.edu.

]]>0mh13http://lectures.princeton.edu/?p=17092014-03-20T14:45:03Z2014-01-06T18:26:48ZFilm and Terrorism

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

6:00 pm, McCosh 50

Filmmaker Olivier Assayas and Critic Ian Buruma will present a conversation on “Film and Terrorism.” Ruben Gallo, Director of Princeton University’s Program in Latin American Studies, will lead the discussion, which will focus on how Assayas has portrayed terrorism in several of his award-winning films.

Director and Screenwriter Olivier Assayas’ films include Something in the Air(Apres Mai, 2012) and Summer Air (L’heure d’Ete, 2008). His 2010 film Carlos examined the life of terrorist Carlos the Jackal and includes a minute-by-minute recreation of Carlos’s storming of a meeting of OPEC and the subsequent kidnapping of several oil ministers. Critic Ian Buruma is the author of “Occidentalism” The West in the Eyes of its Enemies” (2005) and “Murder in Amsterdam: Liberal Europe, Islam, and the Limits of Tolerance” (2007). His most recent book is “Year Zero: A History of 1945” (2013). He has written on questions of violence and terrorism. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Erasmus Prize (2008), the Shorenstein Journalism Award (2008) and the Abraham Kuyper Prize (2012).

Olivier Assayas’ film Carlos will be screened on March 3 at 4:30pm in McCormick 101, followed by a discussion with the director. The screening is free and open to the public.

The Spencer Trask Lecture Series will sponsor these events, which is free and open to the public. For further information on this and other events in the series, please visit lectures.princeton.edu.

Olivier Assayas’ travel to the United States has been supported by Unifrancefilms.

In this talk, Nobel Prize Recipient Daniel Kahneman will sketch a view of the mind that brings together a great deal of psychological research and trace its implication for an understanding of the limited role of reason in our lives. He will also trace his current views to ideas that fascinated him as an undergraduate, to life experiences, to friendships — and to luck.

Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002 for “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty.” He has received numerous awards, including the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom. His 2011 book Thinking, Fast and Slow was a New York Times bestseller. He is a Princeton Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy.

This event, sponsored by the Stafford Little Lecture Series, is free and open to the public. For more information on this and other lectures in the series, please visit lecture.princeton.edu

The basic parts list of the brain is relatively well understood, but the logic of its operation remains almost entirely elusive, despite enormous technical advances. Even as our tools for understanding the brain become finer and finer grained, our theoretical apparatus for characterizing what we observe remains weak. In this talk, Professor Marcus will focus what we know about the six-layered sheet known as the neocortex, and will argue that two of the most dominant paradigms in theoretical neuroscience are inadequate. He will outline an alternative framework that aims to better bridge neuroscience with behavior, computation, development and evolutionary biology.

Gary Marcus, Professor of Psychology at NYU and Visiting Cognitive Scientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, is the author of four books including the NYTimes Bestseller, Guitar Zero. He frequently blogs for The New Yorker, and is co-editor of the forthcoming book, The Future of the Brain: Essays By The World’s Leading Neuroscientists. His research on language, evolution, computation and cognitive development has been published widely, in leading journals such as Science and Nature.

This event, sponsored by the Vanuxem Lecture Series, is free and open to the public. For more information on this and other events in the series, please visit lectures.princeton.edu.